Infinite Iron Stratos
by DefconDeceiver
Summary: When Ichika touched IS machine his world changed, but what if years prior he had already taken the first steps into a much larger universe. How would the marvel cinematic universe be changed by the invention of a mad scientist that could rival the suits made by Tony Stark when said suit were still a secret from the public? OneShot/Challenge unless enough people want more.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness, that's all he could see. He had no idea where he was or how much time had pass in this dark void. 'Drip,' 'Drop,' he could hear drops of water condensing on the ceiling. Listening to that sound was the only thing the middle school boy had to do, save speculating about why he was here, and if anyone else had noticed if he was gone yet. He wasn't sure how much time had passed.

Then all of a sudden a creaking noise accompanied by light with the sounds of metal folding. He looked up, the light which he hadn't seen for some time now felt harsh as it assaulted his eyes. It caused him to only be able to see the silhouette of the figure before him, but even then he could still tell it was his older sister in her IS machine, and the relief of knowing that bubbled up inside him as she reached out to him.

Then his sister suddenly stopped **cold** , as if she was unable to move the machine at all. He knew that he wasn't the sharpest person out their but even he knew something was very wrong. His growing sense of dread increased exponentially by what he heard next.

"How _fortunate_ that we will be able to capitalize on this situation," a high pitched, condescending, and somewhat synthesized voice declared. "While we've been focused on the acquisition of technology more useful to or cause, we'd be fools to pass this up. Acquire the IS with haste, do not let the wellbeing of those inferior life forms slow you down."

The boy could make out the silhouette of _something_ bulky floating off in the distance, and what looked like men in yellow hazmat suits, approaching with what looked like advance weapon, similar to what he had seen in anime and manga.

Then there was a loud angry shout, " **GET AWAY FROM THEM."** Out of the corner of his eye he saw specs of gold and red, before he lost track of everythingand everyonein the chaos of explosions and gunfire that followed.

"Gaah," the boy breathed/yelled out after an explosion happened too close to him for his comfort, and he felt a pain in his chest. He slipped in and out of consciousness. Next thing he knew he was cradled in one of the arms of his sister's IS, and wondering how blood had gotten on the front of his shirt which he had grasped with his left hand because his right was pinned against his sister. It could be argued that it was either horrifying or merciful that his mind was too shaken to comprehend how it came to be. Instead he focused briefly on his sister and her other arm holding a sword, then he followed the direction that it was pointing at. He saw a red and gold armored figure, completely armored from head to toe so that no flesh was visible.

He wondered, 'is that an IS?' Despite the fact that the armor was completely streamlined, more like a suit and it didn't have any wings. He then noticed the big glowing blue circle in its chest.

"Who are you, and why should I trust you," he heard his sister shout protectively in a cold and severe voice.

"I'm your real father," he could feel his sister tighten her grip in immediate response to that as he continued. "And if those wounds are what I fear they are I'm the only one with the technology you need to keep him alive."

_Line-Break_

In a medical bay in an undisclosed location, a boy woke up with a gasp as his eye snapped open. He breathed deeply and while still lying on his back he looked down to see that his left hand was on his chest like it was in the dream.

'The pain I felt in the dream was from my left arm in the real world slamming onto my chest, as a knee jerk reaction to the pain my mind was anticipating in the dream,' He mused. He sat up with his hand still on his chest to find him in a hospital bed, and when he looked up he saw a mirror on the other side of the room. He saw a teen who was about to enroll in high school with charcoal black hair, slightly tanned skin, and red eyes staring back at him. There were a few wires on his head and chest that extended to a machine at the side of his bed.

"Can't believe it has already been a few years since I got my second heart," he said out loud. As he removed his hand from his chest, as he did so it revealed a dim blue light at the center of his chest. It was shining beneath his shirt and through the material that covered it. He looked to the end of his bed to see the jacket he normally wore to conceal it when he didn't want to where a second shirt.

"Believe it kid, like that one ninja character did that everybody use to watch for some reason," a mustached man said coming from the doorway in a black ACDC shirt. He walked in with a swagger you expect from most narcissist and casually leaned on the part of the mirror Ichika had previously been looking at. The same glow could be seen coming from beneath the center of his shirt but it seemed, stronger, more intense like it had been tested again and again only to come out on top.

'One of many things you and Chifuyu have in common, even if she's too stubborn to admit she's anything like you,' Ichika mused. He laughed then said, "Was that an attempt to make yourself sound like you're as culturally aware as you should be."

"No," he immediately replied, "That show was licensed, and popular in America for a while, it's more of a stab at the ridiculous things kids and teenagers find popular." He had a smirk on his face right now.

Ichika continued to smile, he had gotten used to his dad's antics and humor, and they could be just as fun and endearing as they could be annoying. Unlike his sister, who seemed like she wanted only to treat their relationship like a professional one, he had gotten quite close to Tony Stark, despite how seldom they got to meet each other, or that they only knew for sure Chifuyu was his biological daughter. They had never tested for it, because they didn't need to. Ichika quite honestly didn't think he was biologically Tony's son, his intelligence came from being studious, and he wasn't anything close to a genius. It didn't matter to him though, Stark was 10 times more the parent then the two that had ran out on him and Chifuyu. Looking at them banter right now you could see how they truly felt like a father and son.

Then thing got bit serious as Ichika started to remember what happened before waking up there. "So, where am I and how did I get here," he asked

"The exact information regarding that is on a need to know basis," an African American with an eye patch, trench coat, and a serious face. His mood lighten up all of sudden, "but for your information, you are on a SHIELD Hellicarier, currently on standby in the Pacific near Japan." This gave off the impression that the previous statement was said because it was his job to do so. He then strode forward and put out his hand to shake Ichika's. As Ichika returned the gesture he introduced himself, "Nick Furry Director of SHIELD."

Ichika looked over to Tony Stark and commented, "Your right, he does look like a Samuel Jackson impersonator with an Eye Patch." Nick Fury's eyebrow narrowed before he looked over at Tony, who had obviously told Ichika his opinions of him an SHIELD. "We've been over this, he made his movie career _impersonating me_ ," Stated Fury. Stark just put his hands in a mock gesture of surrender.

Fury then turned back to Ichika and explained. "As I'm sure you remember a bunch of men in black suits came to your house and said 'we'll protect you' and attempted to take you somewhere while leaving a notification note. They were sent by the Japanese Government to safely bring you to IS academy. However the amateurs either rushed or were sloppy, because they clearly didn't think that a kid that had already been abducted before wouldn't be nervous and suspicious of them. When they just ignored your question of who they were, and where you would be taken, that's when things started to get out of hand. You pressed the emergency red button on the Quantum Communicator Mr. Stark had given you to stay in touch with, then proceeded to use personal self-defense repulsors (The one's tony used in Iron Man 3 without his suit on) on the agents that were closets to you and ran out the back door. Luckily Stark had some of his people in your neighborhood in case you ever needed help. Once they told you who they worked for, you trusted them to escort you somewhere safe. Unfortunately AIM sent some of their forces to procure you the moment they heard there was a male who could pilot an IS."

Ichika narrowed his eyes at this remembering that AIM was the organization that showed up as Chifuyu was rescuing him all those years ago. Fury continued despite noticing the look Ichika had in his eyes. "When they eventually found where you and the agents were laying low while waiting for your dad, they bombarded the area with concussive rounds to knock you and everyone else out. There's more to be gained studying you alive then dead after all." That sent a shiver down Ichika's spine.

That's when his dad decided to sum up the story, "Luckily, I heroically showed up just in time, saved the day, sent AIM home with their tales between their legs, then brought you back here for medical attention." Ichika looked a little worried at that. So Stark dropped the bravado and in a caring tone said, "relax it was more of precaution than anything else."

"And the people who helped me?" Ichika asked.

"They're just fine," Furry Stated. "We just have you isolated as precautionary measure, we give to all VIPs."

Ichika nodded then asked, "So what happens now?"

Fury shared a look with Stark. "Thanks to your Father's influence you have a few choices," Fury began. "Without that your only choices would be to be forcibly enrolled in IS academy or to radically alter your appearance, and run away under a new name, all because you somehow stumbled upon an IS at the entrance exams and it responded to you." Ichika became pale at this. Fury continued, "While SHIELD was originally, and for some part still is, an US special forces Division, it is also a highly respected international organization and is empowered by the UN to combat highly dangerous terrorist groups like Hydra and AIM. With AIMs attempt to capture you we can place you into our protective custody. While I can promise you'll be able to see your Father and Sister, I'd be lying if I said you wouldn't be partially isolated from society at the very least."

Stark picked it up from there, "While I would feel better about you being officially under SHIELDS protection, given that I have some control and influence in the organization, I think your best chance to still have something resembling a normal child hood is to go to the IS Academy, albeit we'll make sure SHIELD can pull you out anytime you want. That gives you some leverage, as the school will take measures to make you want to stay, if they don't try to outright bribe you."

Ichika sat there for a bit thinking it over, but in the end, he simply didn't want to abandon his sister like their _supposed parents_ had abandoned them. So he sighed and said the only thing he really could.

"So when does class start."

 **Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

 **AN: Yeah this was a story I was writing long ago in college and even made my fanfiction account for as I thought it was an original idea and wanted to see what I could do as a writer and to see how people would respond to it. I dropped uploading it after seeing a movie that derailed what I had planned further down the line. I betting it was winter soldier. Recently I earned my bachelor's degree and I'm going to have some downtime before I find a job, and I've read another author's work that, after reading through it I caught inspiration, and want to do a crossover based on his interpretation of the series and a popular web series. I kind of want to ask for permission to borrow ideas from him even though I would want my story to heavily diverge at some point, simply because he made a main character hated by the community in canon into a character that all of his reviews said they surprising found likable. If enough people actual, subscribe or review and ask for more I'll try to continue this fic. Otherwise I'll just leave this as one shot challenge to inspire others to try and cross Infinite Stratus with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Seriously Infinite Stratus is just one of those series where I can't help but feel down when I think there was a whole lot more that can be done with it. For example, I stayed away from High school DxD at first due to initial concept, but after I heard they did a lot with said concept and it surprisingly had plot, I watched and read the light novels when I was pleasantly surprised it lived up to its unofficial reputation as the "Ecchi Dragonball," as a few people call it.**

 **I hope you enjoy this story. While there are some IS (Infinite Stratus) fics with iron man inspired OCs on this site, that last time I looked there actual crossovers with Iron Man. I also didn't find Iron Man under the movies section and figured it was regarded as part of the avengers, which got me thinking about how to incorporate the avenger's initiative into the background of this fic.**

 **For those of you who haven't heard of Infinite Stratus (IS) the next chapter will provide you with the information about that world, or at least what is known by the world at large in this fic.**

 **I'll admit I'm primarily being very liberal with the Avenger's Timeline. Thor's movie is pretty much happening between this and the next chapter, while the While Tony Stark's abduction and creation of Iron Man happened some time before Tabene Shinonono unveiled the IS. The main difference is that SHIELD did a better job at hiding the information regarding Iron Man and has carefully controlled how much info about Iron Man has been leaked to the public. Tony's experience with Obadiah also made him think more realistically about how to safeguard his technology, that and in real life a company can only back out of its contracts when it no longer has the means to make good on them(like when it goes bankrupt). So when Nick Fury said he wanted to work together after informing him that there was of evidence of aliens having visited Earth before (" you've just become part of a much bigger universe") he decided to play ball but to do it his own way. By promising to supply SHIELD with the continued production of STARK technology and weapons (though he keeps the really advance stuff for himself) he was able to get a fairly good position with influence some influence in shield. This gives him quite a bit of freedom regarding shield but it's not unlimited. While he doesn't play ball in the Movie's he does work with the government in his comic book roots, when it's convenient for him, and as little as possible.**


	2. Class Begins

The admissions process had been quick. The bureaucrats that seemed to want him enrolled into the Academy as quickly as possible. They even had a custom made, boy's version of the school uniform for him to wear even before he arrived on campus! Before he would be sitting in class though he has been taken to a secret hanger on the Academy Grounds.

"Woah.." Ichika said as he saw the large iron suit in the hidden hanger.

"Take it easy kid, it's not like this is the first time you've seen one." Ichika looked back over to the man standing beside him. Said man had brown hair and was wearing a green jacket along with having his right eye covered by an eyepatch.

"It's just amazing to see that there's a suit that's been personally assigned to me." Ichika replied while still staring at the Iron suit in front of him. "I mean I'm surprise it's even on the school grounds. How'd they even sneaky on campus? Or are you not allowed to tell me Mr. Dylandy"

"Your older sister has a lot of influence, and please just call me Neil," Neil offered a warm smile at the last part.

"Sure thing," responded Ichika, "but I'm still curious about exactly why I was assigned my own power armor."

"Because it's likely that the details about various Non-IS power armor units will begin to be released to the public sometime within the near future," said a pink haired female technician staring at her clipboard as she answered his question. She looked up to continue addressing him. "In the years since the IS was invented women all around the world have been empowered mostly out of the societal impact of the IS rather than any legal reforms. That said laws passed in some Middle Eastern countries have finally given the women there legal equalities, though there are some very remote places that this hasn't happened due to their remoteness and ignorance of the wider world."

Felt up to this point had been smiling as she gave the quick history lesson. She adopted a small frown as she continued though. "Unfortunately there is a disturbing rise in women using their new found empowerment to abuse, oppress, and take advantage of their male counterparts in certain areas of the world, and it's disturbing how often they face absolutely no repercussions." She said the last part with some shame.

"Yeah just the other day we were out shopping when some random women came up to me and demanded I drop everything to follow her around and hold her bags all day. She threatened that if I didn't help her she would tell one of the mall cops I harassed her and that would be enough to land me in serious trouble as they wouldn't even ask for my part of the story." Neil then put his arm around the pink haired technician. "Luckily she just walked away with a defeated look when I told her I was already on a date with Felt here." Neil said the last part with a cheek smile.

"Neil!" Felt exclaimed with a blush on her face. "He doesn't need to know that!" Neil just gave a small chuckle but then he became serious again as he turned back to Ichika.

"The invention of Mr. Stark's power armor became an even more well-guarded secret when it was discovered that the new core Tony made to stop from slowly killing him only stopped long term side effects of mini arc-reactors for males. At the time they were worried that it would be seen as evidence that women were inferior to man leads to maltreatment in certain areas of the world."

"And now?" Ichika asked.

"Now the social power women have over man in today's society is starting to get way too far out of hand in certain parts of the world," Felt informed Ichika. "But then you somehow made an IS respond to you with extreme ease when all other males have failed. That's already sending out political and social ripples throughout the world."

'Now if I only had any Idea of how I was able to do it,' Ichika couldn't help but think about.

Felt took out a tablet and handed it to Ichika saying "And then there's this" Ichika took the tablet from Felt. It was opened to an online news site talking about extensive damage that recently occurred at a place called "Culver University." The news went over the extensive amount of conspiracy theories that were going around about secret government projects due to a man known as General Ross being spotted on campus during the incident. Among the wilder claims were the ones that mentioned a giant hulking green man with monstrous strength. Ichika looked back up at Felt and Neil. "Do I even want to know what really happened?"

Neil just shrugged his shoulders. ""I'll make sure to tell you if you need to know, but it's unlikely that you'll ever have to worry about this. What you might have to worry about is how society might react if they learn that there is an enhanced male somewhere out there in the world that can pummel an IS and its pilot into the ground if he manages to get his giant hands on them."

"To put a long story short," Felt decided to steer the conversation back towards the conclusion, "a lot of the dangerous secrets that have been kept hidden from the world are likely going to leak out into the public in the near future. So the powers that be are going to try and control the rate of the information being revealed, and hopefully do so in a way that fixes the overcorrection that has taken place in the world regarding how much power and influence women have in society."

Ichika felt he was in a bizarre and surreal dream. A single day had passed since he had woken up on the SHEILD Helicarrier and he was already sitting in a classroom with students that had likely had to prepare for years ahead of time to get into the campus. He was in one of the prestigious, technologically advanced, and hard to enter schools in the world. From his brief glimpse on the way in, he could say it was indeed nice and lived up to its reputation. At the moment though, Ichika's mind was distracted by something else though.

Ichika was currently opening and closing his left hand, a unique nervous tic he had. 'This is,' Ichika thought, 'this is way more awkward then I thought it would be.' He could feel the rows upon rows of students behind him that were all staring at him like a scientific curiosity, which sadly he kind of was. Luckily for Ichika someone else walked in to take the attention off of him.

"Congratulations on making it in to this school, I'm your first year sub-homeroom teacher Ms. Maya Yamada," said the happy sounding teacher introducing herself with a friendly wave as her name appeared on the electronic board at the front of the room. As far as introduction went, she sounded kind and caring. She looked young and had green eyes behind her classes to match her green hair. She wore a yellow dress, which caused Ichika to lightly blush when he realized that said dress seemed to reveal some of the upper portion of her bra.

"Ah..." Ms. Yamada seemed to have realized the awkward atmosphere as the moment she stopped speaking most of the students in the room went back to staring at Ichika the only boy in the entire room. Her body language screamed nervousness for a second before regaining her professionalism. "Starting today you are all students of the IS Academy. As you know this is a boarding school. Students are together during and after school hours. So I hope you'll get along and help each other, as it'll make your next three years enjoyable" She said with a smile only to again grow nervous at the atmosphere. "Um, moving on to self-introductions. Um let's go in order by the class roll."

At this point Ichika began to look around the room as he noticed a girl he recognized sitting two seats to his left. Said girl had dark blue eyes and had her brown hair tied into a long ponytail with a green ribbon. When the girl notice he was looking at her she immediately turned her face away from him. 'Houki…,' Ichika though sadly, 'is that really how you're going to react after we finally see each other after 6 years?' Ichika shook those thoughts from his head. 'I need to remember what dad said about how most of these girls use to be at all girl prep schools, she might just not recognize me and is nervous about a guy looking at her. Oh jeez, I hope I didn't creep her out and make thing even more awkward.'

"Hello Ichika Orimura." Ichika was distracted from his current teenage woes by the sound of the teacher calling his name. "Here!" Ichika cried out nervously, and grew embarrassed when he heard the girls in the class giggling.

"I do apologize for being so loud just then, but we started out with the A's and we've gotten all the way up to the O's" Luckily Ms. Yamada was kind instead of strict. It seemed she had called his name multiple time, much to his embarrassment. "So would you introduce yourself now, pretty please?"

As glad as Ichika was for her kindness it actually left him feeling even more embarrassed. "You really don't need to apologize, and sorry. I've been a bit out of it due to my shock at how surreal things have been lately." He proceeded to stand up and introduce himself nervously, "Ichika Orimura, nice to meet you all!" A brief look around the classroom and he saw all the girls zeroing in on him with laser like focus, except for Houki who turned away again. 'Ah, jeez I need to say something else, but what?' He took a short inhale of breath to calm himself down, unknowingly causing everyone around him to think he had something important to say. "That's all!" the sound of people being floored by the anti-climactic let down was very audible. "What? Was it that bad?"

His question would was sort of answered when out of no-where and woman dressed in a black business overcoat and matching skirt suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slam her fist down on the top of his head. "Ow!" Ichika cried out from where he was kneeling on the floor. He looked up to find someone he wasn't expecting to see. "What the, sis?"

Said sister immediately punched him in the head again. "You will call me 'Miss Orimura' at school," she said in a very strict manner. Despite these events Ms. Yamada seemed happy to see her rather than horrified she was hitting a student. "Oh good, your back. Does that mean the meeting is over?" Ichika looked up to see his sister reply coolly, "That's right Ms. Yamada. I'm sorry about having to make you welcome my class for me."

This caught Ichika's attention. His sister would only come home once, or twice a month these past few years, and no one has seemed to know what she did for a living. She stepped up to the front of the classroom to introduce herself. "All right class, I'm your homeroom teacher, Ms. Chifuyu Orimura. It's my job to train you well enough to stand on your own feet in one year."

Ichika covered his ears as his developing headache was made worse by the screams that followed his sister's introduction. "Lady Chifuyu! That's really Lady Chifuyu!" "You inspired me to come to this school! I'd die for you!" Ichika remembered his dad telling him that fan girls could be insane and crazy but seeing it person was far weirder then he had imagined. Chifuyu just sighed, and put her hand on her forehead. "I'm amazed by just how many nutjobs come to this school ever year. Did I piss off someone on the board and they decided to put all the loonies in my class as revenge?"

Once again there was loud fan girl screams. "Lady Chifuyu, scold us more! Curse us out! Train us so we don't misbehave." Hardcore fan girls were truly disturbing existences.

Ichika, was luckily distracted from thinking about said fangirls as his brain was trying to process what he just had learned. "My big sister is my homeroom teacher?" 'I mean isn't this sort of situation normally prohibited?' He became more concerned with more imminent issues when his sister turned to him, punching one hand into the palm of the other. "So, have the instructions regarding addressing your instructor not taken yet?"

"Well, Chifuyu...," Ichika began nervously. "I was just..." He didn't get to finish as his sister pushed his head down onto his desk. "That's Ms. Orimura, right?"

"Yes, Ms. Orimura," Ichika grunted out. Chifuyu, I mean Orimura, let go off his head, much to Ichika's relief.

The schools in Japan certainly had stricter punishments then those in western nations. Despite the spectacle, the girls of the class started to focus on a fact they previously overlooked in the initial fan girl freak out. "What? You mean Orimura is Lady Chifuyu's younger brother?" This produced further whispers from some the rest of the classroom. "I wonder, does that have anything to do with the fact that he's the only male in the world who can control an IS?"

"That's enough." Chifuyu decided it was time to get the course back on track. "Your syllabus for the next 6 months begins with memorizing all data concerning the IS.

After that, practical training, where you'll have 2 weeks to master the basic maneuvers.

So have you got that? Even if you don't, say "yes, ma'am." Ah chorus of said phrase echo though the class room.

'I suppose it makes sense,' Ichika mused. 'My sister was one of the stars of the first generation of IS pilots. She was even chosen to represent Japan. I got worried when she retired out of the blue and disappeared for a bit, but turns out she just became a teacher. I feel so stupid for ever worrying about her and if she was on some super-secret mission for SHIELD.' He certainly did have a pretty active middle schooler's imagination back then.

From there they did the easy basic information on the IS for the initial class. Ms. Yamada covered how "IS" actually stands for "Infinite Stratos." That it's a multi-form suit originally developed in Japan. How when it was first conceived 10 years ago, it was originally designed to be used in outer space (plans that are currently on hold). Due to the Alaska Treaty, the IS is also prohibited from being used by the military Therefore, it's used solely for competitions and sporting events. 'Officially that's the case,' Ichika contemplated given what his dad hold told him. 'Unofficially the different countries of the world give the best IS pilots military training and theories on how to fight in case the treaty ever falls through.' He refocused on the lesson which was more of a basic recap of recent world events.

How the IS Academy is the only educational institution in the world established with the objective of training IS pilots. Students from all around the world came to this school, where young people from a multitude of countries get to live, work and study side by side everyday as they hone and perfect their piloting skills. "So starting today, let's all study hard over the next 3 years." Ms. Yamada concluded. The class responded with an enthusiastic, "Yes, ma'am!".

It was about time for the first break. So now that he didn't have school lessons to distract him Ichika once again had to return his focus to the rather odd setting he was in. There were a bunch of students from other classrooms lined up outside the door looking at him like he was some kind of exotic animal at a zoo and gossiping. "Look, that's him." "He's the only guy in the world who can use an IS." "I heard that he operated an IS during his entrance exam." "Yeah, it was big international news." "So he did come into this school after all." "You should go talk to him." "Maybe I should." "Hey, wait just a minute. Are you trying to get ahead of us?"

"Someone please, please save me from this situation," moaned Ichika. He felt like he was willing to do anything to get out of there for only a few minutes. He was in luck as Houki walked up to him. "Can we talk for a minute?" He was all too glad to have a reason to go outside for the privacy they needed.

Ichika breathed deeply as they got outside he was happy to finally have a nice, calming, relaxing, atmosphere. "So, what's up?" Houki was leaning on a guard rail trying to figure out what to say but wasn't coming up with anything. Ichika figured he would try to steer the conversation a bit more until Houki figured out what to say "Well, it's been 6 years now. So is there something you wanted to say?" More silence followed. Oh well, he could keep going. "Oh, that's right."

"Ah, what's right?" Houki seemed a bit confused by his statement.

"Well, I heard about you winning the international Kendo competition last year. Way to go." Ichika had honestly been happy for her when he had heard that.

"What? How did you find out about that?" For some reason Houki had shouted upon hearing that tid bit. Ichika was understandably surprised with her response. "What do you mean? It was in the newspaper."

"And why were you looking at that newspaper?" for some reason Houki sounded like she was suspicious of Ichika's reasons.

"Yeah, actually..." Ichika decided he should just cut his losses and change the subject. "You know, it's been ages, but even after 6 years, I recognized you right away, Houki." She gained a light blush that went unnoticed by Ichika. "You still have the same hairstyle." Houki seemed to become a bit bashful, and start playing with a strand of her hair. "Yeah, you don't forget a single thing, do you?"

Ichika was glad to finally glad to see a smile on his old friend's face. "How can I forget about you? You're my childhood friend." Houki then gained an unreadable expression on her face, as if she had been hoping for him to say something a little more than that. Unfortunately Ichika was now the one standing there without a clue of what to say. Luckily this went on for only a few seconds before the warning bell rung.

"Shoot! That's the bell." Came from behind a pillar where a few girls had been secretly watching the two." The girls started walking back while contemplating what their new source to gossip about. "What's with her? Who's Orimura's friend?" Oblivious to the high school drama off in the distance Ichika focused on his childhood friend and was glad he now had something to say. "Well, I guess we should head back now." Ichika started walking back now missing the sad disappointing look Houki had, "Yeah, I guess we should."

It's sometime later in the classroom and we find Ichika struggling with his course work 'This active whatever and that wide-area contraption..., what does that even mean?

Don't tell me I need to memorize all these stuff!' He knew he should have expected this. Most of the students here went to some prep school that had special courses to teach some of this a head of time and prepare them. It was apparent that the current course work was creating believing no one like him would show up to the school without any previous knowledge about the specific technology of the IS.

Ms. Yamada had seemed to have notice him having trouble. "Do you have any questions, Orimura?"

"Well..." Ichika hesitated to ask, worried about how this would go. Ms. Yamada only responded to this with her usual kindhearted attitude. "Well, if you do have any questions, just ask me, okay? I am your teacher after all."

Ichika nervously raised his hand. "Ms. Yamada..."

Ms. Yamada put on reassuring kind smile. "Yes. Don't be shy." Said smile disappeared when she heard Ichika say "I don't understand any of this!" Now she had the look of confusion and slight panic. "What? Not any of it? Is there anyone else here who doesn't understand what we've covered so far?" You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed.

Chifuyu stepped forward to take over the matter from hear less experienced coworker. "Orimura, did you read the reference manual before school started?"

"Um, are you talking about that big one?" Ichika responded nervously

"That's right. Didn't it say required reading?"

"Yeah, but it kind of got destroyed during an incident." Ichika said lamely. It was one of the casualties from when he hadn't responded well to the initial guards sent to pick him up.

Chifuyu sighed at that answer. "I'll get you a new copy then. And I expect you to have the whole thing memorized within a week."

"What? That big book? Within a week?"

Chifuyu suddenly had a dangerously looking gleam in her eye. "What did I say?"

Ichika seized up for a second before dropping his head in defeat. "Yes... ma'am." Honestly the next break couldn't get here fast enough for the poor boy.

Ichika was trying to pass the time by playing with a mechanical pencil when a girl with long blond hair that was arranged into two drills walked up to him. "May I have a moment?"

Ichika responded with a bored "Huh?"

The blond girl looked aghast "Oh, what sort of a response is that?" She adopted a rather cross look and continued with one hand on her hip. "You should be honored that I bothered speaking to you in the first place. Don't you think you should behave in more appropriate manner?"

"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't even know who you are, okay?" Ichika's response caused the girl to once adopt a shocked look on her face before becoming angry, this time she slammed her hands own on his desk. "You don't know who I am? I'm Cecilia Alcott, England's representative contender, the one who scored highest on the..."

Ichika decided to interrupt her right there. "Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I have a question."

The now named Cecilia gained a smug, arrogant look on her face "Well, it is the responsibility of nobles to answer queries from the lower classes. Do go ahead."

"You're a representative contender. Got it. What's that mean?" Ichika could swear he hear bodies hit the floor when he finished talking.

Cecilia seemed to stutter with incredulously before regaining her composure "This is unbelievable! I can only hope that every Japanese man is not this utterly devoid of knowledge. I mean, it's nothing more than common sense, honestly."

"Are you going to tell me what it is or don't you know either?"

Cecilia once again adopted a smug look. "They are the chosen elites selected by their countries to represent them as IS pilots," Cecilia stated smugly. "Surely you should be able to deduce that from the name alone."

"Oh, when you put it that way, it makes sense."

"That's right. I am one of the elite. It's a true miracle and your good fortune to get to be in the same homeroom with someone like me. Oh what an incredibly lucky boy you are! Did that get through that thick skull of yours?' Cecilia end her rant condescendingly.

It was Ichika's turn to give her a look and respond. "I guess I'm lucky when I consider everything"

This seemed to only make Cecilia madder. "Wait, are you making fun of me now?" Ichika just gave her a dry look. "When I consider everything that's happened to me the last few days, I have to have some kind of weird luck."

Cecilia seemed to contemplate that response for a second before choosing to move on. "Regardless, I'd like to know how you managed to enter this school with no knowledge about anything. I heard that you're the only male who can control an IS. But you've been turning out to be such a terrible disappointment."

Ichika couldn't help but feel it was unfair that people were putting all these unreasonable expectations on him. "To answer your first question, the powers that be thought that the political situation demanded I either be placed here or an undisclosed location." Darn that sounded depressing to him. "My sister apparently did a lot to make sure I was placed here. Second I might be able to control an IS, but I never thought I would. So I've spent most of life preparing to do something else when I graduate high school."

"Hmph, "Cecilia responded dismissively. "In any case, since I'm so remarkable, I can still find it in my heart to be considerate towards people such as yourself. So, if you do have questions, I wouldn't mind answering them for you if you would plead with tears in your eyes. After all, I did defeat an instructor during the entrance exam, which means that I am an elite amongst the elites..."

"Um, I defeated an instructor," interrupted Ichika getting a loud surprised "WHAT?" from Cecilia. Ichika decided the best revenge was to mess with her by treating it as no big deal "Maybe it wasn't really a defeat. When the instructor charged at me, I dodged, she smashed into the wall and kaboom." Truly, hubris is an Achilles heel. That instructed had expected the match to prove the first time he had moved an IS to be a fluke. The instructor had been so shocked when he had moved out of the way, that said instructor didn't react in-time when she flew past him into the wall.

Cecilia seemed to be struggling with comprehending what she heard. "B-but I heard that I was the only one." Ichika very bluntly gave his two cents on the matter. "They might've meant you were the only female."

His casual remark only made Cecilia madder. "Wait! Are you telling me that you've also defeated the instructor?"

"Wait, now just calm down, okay?"

Cecilia seemed to only freak out more. "Calm? How can I be calm at this insult?" Luckily for Ichika the bell wrong. "We will be continuing this conversation later. Do you understand?" Cecilia huffed as she marched off.

Ichika couldn't help but be worried over how his day was going. Aside from how awful class had went, about a dozen girls had been following some distance behind him on his walk to his new dorm. "If things are like this on the first day, I'm worried about the future." He really wished that the novelty of being the only male student on campus would eventually die off.

He stopped outside a door whose number 1025 matched the one on the sheet he was given. "This must be it," Ichika said before stepping inside, "Woah..." The inside of the room was luxurious and spacious. Seriously it was more like a high quality apartment then a dorm room. Ichika could only marvel at the great view of the ocean that was outside.

He was brought out of his stupor when he heard a voice call out, "Is someone out there?" He briefly recognize the sound of a shower coming from what he presumed to be the bathroom door before the water was caught off. "Girl?! " Ichika proclaimed in shock. He had though they would have given him his own room due to how often dorms rooms were separated by gender. The fact that his female roommate was about to come out of the shower expecting a female roommate made him panic. He was afraid he was about to discover how it felt like to be an anime protagonist who was punished by an embarrassed female character despite the fact he was totally innocent. To his horror, the last person he wanted it to be walked out of the shower.

"Oh hey, you must be my roommate," she walked in oblivious to her current situation. "I look forward to having your company this year. Sorry for meeting you like this, but I just got out of the shower. My name is Houki Shinonono." She introduce herself while only wearing her bath towel, and going into shock upon seeing Ichika who was also gob smacked.

"I-I-Ichika?!" After a few seconds she finally got a hold herself and tried to hide herself with her arms and started yelling, "Don't look!"

"Ah! Sorry!" Ichika said turning away.

"What the hell are you doing in here!?"

"Well, this happens to be my room and..." Ichika began before he finally realized something. "Hang on! That means you and I are sharing the same room!" Houki didn't seem to react to that very well, judging by the fact that she went and grabbed a kendo shinai sticking out of the back pack that she had left on the floor. Wait, what?

"Haaahh…" Houki yelled charging with her practice sword with famine furry. This in turn caused Ichika close his eyes and shriek out in horror, "No, not that cliché!" As this happened he brought his right arm up on reflex due to the impending danger. His repulsor came up and fired off a low level shot that slammed into the center of Houki's body, causing her to hit the ground with an audible 'thud'. 'Now I've done it,' Ichika woed.

"You alright Houki?" He asked as he opened his eyes. "Huh?" Ichika was initially confused when he couldn't see anything. Something was covering his head. He reached up and pulled it from on top of his head to hold it out in front of his face. "What is? …" He then began to pale as he realize he was holding the towel Houki had been covering herself up with. "Houki, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to, gah!" His apology was cut off when the wooden practice sword Houki had previously been holding, pierced through the towel he had been holding, narrowly missed his head, continued to sail through the air like a javelin, and embed itself in the door behind him.

Ichika jaw dropped as he turned around to face the door and held up the towel with a hole the size of a bottle in it. "HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?" He then heard growling behind him. "I didn't see anything let me know when you're done changing!" Ichika yelled as he ran out of the room and into the hall way. Once outside he leaned on the door that opened into the hallway to make sure Houki couldn't follow him out into the Hallway. A bead of sweat rolled down Ichika's face as he notice how far the blunt, wooden sword stuck out of the door. "Just how monstrous are you skills in kendo Houki?" He then paled when the shinai was quickly pulled back into the room. He quickly leapt back onto the floor as the shinai pierced through the door yet again and into the spot his head use to be.

"Are you honestly trying to kill me?" Ichika yelled as he was starting to realize how utterly ridiculous his life is becoming. "I'd have been dead if I hadn't dodged that one!" He then noticed all the noise had drawn the attention of the girls in the nearby dorm rooms out into the hall and they were all staring at him. "Look, that's Orimura". "Hey, this is his room. That's a good thing to know, isn't it, girls?"

"Houki! Ms. Houki, please let me in right now." Ichika was desperate to get back into the room. "This is gonna be bad, I mean... I apologize! So please let me in.

Please I'm begging you!"

"All right then." Houki open the door wearing a garb that looked similar to a kendo uniform. Ichika quickly followed her inside to see her sitting on the bed by the window with a rather cross look on her face. "So, now it turns out you're my roommate."

"It looks that way," Ichika said nervously. He decided to try to change the subject. "By the way I, actually, wanted to have the bed in that corner."

"Just what are you up to?" Asked Houki suspiciously. ("Huh?") "I asked you what are you up to. Don't you know that mixing genders past age seven is just wrong?"

"Hey, I'm just as surprised about this as you are." Ichika countered starting to get tired of Houki's overreaction. "Really you think they would have put me in my own room. You know, with a 15-year-old guy and girl living together, I mean, sharing the same room."

Ichika looked over to see Houki trembling as she stuttered, "You... You... You... You requested this room, didn't you? You had asked them to put us in here together!"

"You're kidding me!" Ichika was shocked by the rapid conclusions she was jumping to. Okay, so he walked into her room when she was taking a shower, …and saw her in nothing but a bath towel, and attacked her while somehow simultaneous disrobing her. Okay, maybe he's making a bad first impression, but she's still overreacting to the situation! The holes in the towel and the door were physical proof! As well as the fact she was lunging at him with the practice sword again. "Haa!"

This time Ichika was slightly more prepared and chose to catch it with his hands rather than risk making things worse by firing off another repulsor. "Kidding am I!" Houki cried out hoarsely. Luckily for Ichika a few of the girls were watching the ordeal from the door to the hallway and felt the need to comment on the spectacle. "Shinonono's so bold." "Quit wiggling, it's hard to see." Houki pulled back from her attack embarrassed at being seen behaving in such a manner by stranger. Ichika was just as relieved as the girls outside were disappointed. "Shoot, it's over already." "Just when it was starting to get good." Ichika could only sweet drop at how they acted like their favorite new television show was done airing.

Houki slammed the door and took a few deep breaths before addressing her roommate again. "Ichika! (What now?) As long as we're sharing the same room, I ah, think that you and I are going to need to establish some ground rules. First, regarding shower use each hours. I'll use it between 7 and 8 PM. And you can use it from 8 to 9.

"But I wanted to use it earlier than that," Ichika wined.

"Are you asking me not to shower after my club activities?"

"You mean activities like Kendo? I thought they had showers in the club facility for that."

"I really don't feel relaxing unless I shower in my own room"

"And I'd like to use the toilet in my own place more than using the ones at school.

Oh, hold on. There are no toilets in the rooms here, are there?"

"That's right. There only are restrooms at the end of each hallway.

"You think someone would have remembered that this place is an all-girls school when enrolling me," Ichika criticized. 'Well at least most single capacity bathrooms are practically unisex,' he thought. "But worst-case scenario..."

"I see you've become quite a pervert during the years I haven't seen you. I'm very disappointed."

Ichika gained an annoyed look at the latest accusation. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You want to go in the girl's restroom. What else would you call that besides perverted?" She once again raised her shinai above her head. "Ah, I should punish you right now!"

"Oh no, you don't." Ichika had finally had enough of her senseless violence. He reached into Houki's nearby bag and pull out the other shinai Houki kept so that he could block her next strike. He held it front of him like the two of them were about to have a kendo match. Only now, did he noticed that there was some oddly shaped white fabric wrapped around the tip much to his confusion. "What the hell is this?" Ichika asked while Houki gasped with shock at the fact that her bra was in plain view for Ichika to see.

"Give it back!" Houki screamed as she quickly snatched her bra. She held it tightly to her chest as she turned her body away while still facing so Ichika wouldn't be able to see. "Hands off, you pervert!" Houki said meaning to sound angry but her voice came out as mortified.

Ichika started scratching the back of his head as he only now started to put two and two together. "It would seem that you wear a bra now, huh," he stated nervously as he looked away sheepishly. Which immediately proved to be a mistake as Houki's brought her wooden sword down hard unto his head and he collapse to the floor.

….

"Um, hello. Are you still mad at me?" It was the morning after the disastrous roommate meeting. Ichika and Houki were sitting in the cafeteria now and he figured with all the girls who were staring at him (and gossiping about him as well), now was a safe time to try and talk to Houki.

"I am not mad at you," Houki responded while sounding very upset.

"Then why are you still wearing a mad face?"

Houki just gave him a look and said, "Get used to it."

Ichika just sighed before he started digging into the meal in front of him. "Wow, this stuff is delicious. Hey, Houki, do you think..."

"Don't use my first name!" Houki reacted very angry while slamming her hand down on the table. He knew it, she was still mad. Ichika just gave a small sigh before tiredly saying, "Ms. Shinonono."

"So," Houki began adopting a more quiet voice. "Are you going to tell me about what the hell you fired at me you yesterday?"

"I've gotten kidnapped before," Ichika explained in a subdued voice. "Possibly to make my sister miss what could have been the biggest match she of her life. It's not too surprising that it was arranged for me to have a way to defend myself after that."

Houki didn't know what to say and stayed silent for a bit.

The awkward moment came to an end when three girls walked up to their table and kindly asked, "Orimura, may we sit next to you?"

"Huh? Sure. Go ahead and have a seat." Ichika for his part was surprised to finally see one his classmates he didn't know come up and started to talk to him normally. He figured with how most of the girls here had likely previously been at all girl IS prep schools, they would be too nervous to approach him for a while. He had considered Cecilia an exception to the norm because the girl seemed to have too much confidence, among other things as well. Seriously he couldn't help but think that she was going to end up reinforcing some cartoony stereotypes about the British based just on the few minutes he had spent talking to her.

Back to the present two of the three girls bumped the back of the fist together and said, "Oh yeah!" As they sat down various girls around the room could be heard speaking about it. "Oh man, we should've gone ask him earlier." "Relax. It's only the second day. There's no need to rush it." As the girls sat down one of them started up a conversation by saying "Wow, Orimura, you sure do eat a lot for breakfast." Her friend sitting next to her commented, "That's a typical boy."

"Actually, I was wondering if that's all you three eating for breakfast," Ichika gestured to their light meals, "it doesn't seem like enough," stated Ichika.

To this two of the girls got embarrassed looks. "Oh well sure... Well, you know..." the new girl sitting closest to Ichika began. Her friend continued the line for her, "Yeah, I mean we'll be okay, thanks." The girl on the end who was the only one in her pajamas still (which oddly had cat ears and a Pikachu color scheme) decided to chime in. "Because we eat a lot of snacks," she said while revealing the three girls didn't eat so healthily. "Honne!" they responded in embarrassment.

Ichika laughed a bit as he decided to give his two cents on nutrition. "You know I think it's healthier to have the biggest meal of the day be breakfast so that your body has all day to digest it. Then you have lighter meals as you get closer to bed."

"I think I'll excuse myself now," Houki said a tad too loudly as she finished eating and got up. Apparently annoyed with the current atmosphere.

"Okay then. I'll see you later," Ichika responded thinking it was probably best to give Houki time to cool off. As she walked away one of the girls decided to talk about her and Ichika. "So you and Shinonono must be really close friends." Her friend added on this by saying, "I heard that you two are even sharing the same room."

"Well, we are childhood friends," Ichika said while starting to feel nostalgic. This caused the three girls to gained a shocked looked as they simultaneously cried out, "Huh? You're childhood friends?"

"Yeah." Ichika said deciding not to bother to figure out what all the fuss was about. "We started going to the same Kendo dojo back when we were in the first grade. We were in class together until fourth grade." He then gained a somewhat sad, far off look on his face. "But I don't remember much about it anymore. About the past."

The sound of loud clapping was heard. Ichika turned around to see his sister standing in the middle of the cafeteria in a white gym clothes. "Less talking and more chewing!" she ordered. "Pilots have to eat quickly and efficiently! I'm the freshman dorm supervisor. Anyone late to class will do 10 laps around the school."

A smile graced Ichika's face at seeing this. "Now I get it. No wonder she hardly ever came home." Who knew his sister was one those dedicated tough but fair teachers?

Ms. Orimura decided to open the class up with some news. "2 weeks from today, you'll be asked to choose your representative for the class tournament. A class representative, not only competes in the tournament, but also attends student council meetings and committee meetings. Essentially, it's your class leader, okay? I will now take nominations. Any suggestions?"

A girl on the right side of the classroom put her hand up "I'd like to nominate Orimura."

"Huh?" Ichika was surprised by this, he was the least ready to fight in an IS tournament. Not to mention that none of the girls here knew him all that well!"

Somewhere on the left of the classroom someone said, "Dude, I think that's a good idea, too."

"Huh? You do?" Ichika couldn't help but feel incredulous at the situation and the girl's vocabulary choice. 'Seriously why did she use the word dude when addressing a class that was almost complete female? Is she a surfer chick or something?'

Chifuyu then brought his attention back to the matter at hand, "So is there anyone else? If not, he'll be elected without a vote."

"Hang on a minute. What if I don't want to do it?" Ichika tried to protest.

"I do not approve of this!" Cecilia yelled out angrily as she rose from her chair. "This type of selection is utterly unacceptable. It would be shameful to have a boy like this as our class representative. You can't possibly expect that I, Cecilia Alcott, should have to deal with that sort of humiliation for an entire year! Especially with all trouble I had to endure with boarding in another country while managing the numerous affairs that come with being a member of an elite family. He's just a freeloader who got in without any effort and couldn't possibly understand what it's like to spend some of the most important years of your life without the comfort of your home country. Oh England how I miss you already and all the things that I can't find here in this country"

Ichika couldn't help but feel agitated especially as the final sentence felt like a dig at the country he was born in. "It's not like your country has many things to brag about either these days. How often has England won the world worst cuisine award?" He yelled finally tired of trying to sound polite.

Cecilia looked aghast at the fact that he actually talked back to her like that. "We English have many delicious dishes. I can't believe you would have the audacity to insult my country. This calls for a duel!"

"Fine by me. It'll be easier than debating," Ichika said with firm resolution and a wide smirk on his face.

 _Flashback_

" _You know, "Neil began, "It's likely they'll have you demonstrate the abilities of the Iron Man series power armor by having you face off against your classmates with it. When the time come make sure to do us proud."_

" _Us?" Ichika asked._

 _Neil gave him another smirk. "I was one of the people who your dad trusted to actually use the technology he made." He then gained a frown, "Before I lost my eye anyways," He said while pointing to the eyepatch on his face. "Now I'm one of the few male staff members who'll be maintaining training equipment along with Felt, while unofficially I'm here to provide whatever support you may need"_

 _Ichika eyes widen as he gained a new found respect for the veteran in front of him. "I'll make sure to make you proud the first chance I get," he said with conviction._

 _End Flashback…._

"And if you should lose to me on purpose, I will make you regret it," Cecilia fired back, her choice of words revealing that she thought the only way the match would end was with her own victory.

"How much handicap will it be?"

"Are you asking me for a favor already?" Cecilia asked looking amused.

"No," Ichika responded smugly. "I was wondering how much the handicap I should give you." He had plenty of training with power armor. Even if the model he had been given only had the basic features, he knew he could take her. The girls of the class had different reactions. Nearly all the girls in the classroom broke out into laughter. "Ha, Ha, Ha…" "Orimura, are you serious?" "Yeah, men used to be stronger than women, but that was before the IS was invented." "People say if men and women would have a war, it wouldn't even last 3 days."

Ichika had to suppress a sigh at that last jab. 'The people who say that are completely ignorant of logistical needs.' The casual arrogance in the public was only due to how well-kept the secret of iron man and other power armor was from the general public. As far as most of the women of the world were concerned, the idea that they had become superior to men was as assured as the sun will rise and set each day.

It wasn't a surprise that Cecilia had joined in the laughter. "As a matter of fact, I'm the one who should be wondering about giving you a handicap. Japanese boys are so humorous, aren't they?"

"Hey, if you're nice, a real lady might still give you that handicap, you know." A girl in the front row thought she might help make things easier for Ichika.

Ichika turned to stare at the girl "And a real man never goes back on his word, I'll pass" he said making clear his convictions surprising the girl. "Um, you're underestimating her," the girl said in a worried tone as she looked back at Cecilia.

"It looks like that's settled then," Chifuyu said with a grin. "The competition will be staged in Arena 3, which I believe is available Monday. Orimura and Alcott, I expect you to come fully prepared for combat.

AN:

I got a few favorites on this. So I figured I write a chapter for this while I was writing the first chapter for other story I wanted to write. I wanted to compare what it was like to write the two. The nature of this story means I'll have to borrow from the original script for the beginning while adding a few new things, while the other story requires me to create a lot of original content upfront. So far the perfectionist in me who goes back and rechecks the original material over and over again greatly prefers righting completely new material with a few fact checks over constantly rechecking what I had to borrow from canon material.

For the record so long as I have an active story I'm going to make sure I provide at least one chapter a month for said story. Simply because I think that's plenty of time to write a chapter so long as I don't suffer from a major medical problem like a coma. Though I will try to update more often than that. Also please review. So long as they don't seem like flames to me I will read each one and response. Speaking of which….

Kinunatzs The Eternal: I hope this chapter showcases that this is a combined versions of the 2 universes. The backstory of Infinite Stratos has already happened while the first Iron Man and other Marvel Cinematic Events have happened mostly without public knowledge, key word 'mostly'. Many people debate how much of Captain  
America was fact and how much was propaganda. Needless to say the belief in the Captains abilities is strongest in America. SHIELD exist but when its work makes the news it is often reported as the work of joint international tasks force.


	3. The IS Match and The IM Rematch

**AN: So, I'm alive. Sorry for the wait, real life circumstances favored and encourage focusing on another story since the last chapter. Speaking of that last chapter was the second chapter I ever posted and was somewhat of an experiment. For those of you who didn't like how close to the canon last chapter went, you'll be happy to know I tried avoid anything unoriginal as much as possible in this chapter.**

* * *

Deep inside a concealed hanger hidden in the IS school, two individuals were watching as automated mechanical tools sprang to life and whirled around a full metal suit of armor. Within seconds, key components off the armor where lifted away, allowing a high school boy to step out. "So is that all you need from me today?" Ichika asked as he stretched his arms.

"That should be enough testing to make adequate calibrations," Felt replied. "We'll likely fine tune them at a later date."

"You going to bail, or will you finish telling us how your day at school went?" Neil asked "It's not every day someone is issued a personal IS, let alone someone who isn't official back by any government or organization."

"Yeah, I still can't believe they're providing me with a personal IS either,"Ichika groaned.

"You don't sound too happy about it," Neil noted. "Considering how there were only 476 IS cores made and distributed around the world, most would feel extremely lucky to get their own personal IS unit."

"I know that it's a privilege few get, Cecilia bragged about how having her own unit made her an 'elite among elites'. But still, it means I'm expected to use that IS unit for my match. I had hoped that I could convince my sister to let me use this power suit against Cecilia in a closed private arena, but there's little chance of that when everyone's looking forward to seeing me duke it out in my own personal IS." Ichika turned to face the power armor his dad had sent him. "I know that it only has the more basic IM tech in case anyone tried to steal or hack it, but I could probably put up a better fight in it. I know how to use it, where there's a good chance I'll still be trying to make sure I fly an IS straight by the time the match starts."

"Not to mention the surprise factor it would have," said a voice coming from a monitor displaying the face of Tony Stark. "Think you could tweak the left arm a bit Felt, the diagnostic seems a bit off there. Ichika's nervous tick sometimes gets picked up as an attempt to trigger hand gesture recognition."

"Sure thing," replied Felt as she worked on a computer she had plugged into the suit. "Can you send me some sample data for me to look at?"

Ichika rubbed the back of his head as his dad sent over the logs detailing how his habit of opening and closing his hand was often interpreted as an incorrect hand gesture to trigger an action. "Surprised you only mention tactical advantage. Wasn't it the perfect set up to gloat about the superiority of the Iron Man suit?"

"I can appreciate good scientific breakthroughs," his dad said without his eyes leaving the diagnostics he was looking at. "Besides comparing the two different power suits is somewhat like comparing attack helicopters and fighter jets."

That analogy made Ichika curious. "Care to elaborate for someone who doesn't know how to take a car apart and put it back together again?"

"It comes down to how IS cores and the miniature arc-reactors don't even fulfill the same purposes," supplied Felt who was also engrossed in her laptop and still keeping up with the conversation. "Both technologies serve as black-boxes as no one other than the original creators can make them."

"Unless they have access to some insider knowledge," Mr. Stark grunted as if recalling a bad memory. "Even then though, very few would be able to do so." Ichika felt like there was a story behind that, but put that line of thought to the back of his mind when Felt continued explaining.

"While both power suits are built around their respective black-boxes, said black-boxes fulfill different roles. To sum up a few chapters of your manual, the IS core is able to utilized quantum particles and cause quantum mechanics effects on a scale that practically makes it so that an IS suit operates utilizing different rules of physics. A good example of this is how an IS achieves flight by altering its own gravity and inertia rather than just generating thrust to overcome gravity."

"On the other hand, the miniature arc-reactors I created are portable power supplies with never before seen levels of energy output for their size." Mr. Stark cut in with a pride in his voice. "Power to weight ratio is a crucial factor in making any kind of exoskeletal armor a feasible system. The US army was able to make a functional mechanical exoskeleton all the way back in the 1960's, but nothing came of it because it was too heavy and slow to be viable. Despite how much time has passed since then it seems only me and Tabane have come up with elegant solutions to the problem."

"Elegant?" Ichika asked.

"I wouldn't call powering a suit with extremely radioactive nuclear material to be a worthwhile solution. Even if you did add proper radiation shielding it would likely add too much weight anyways." Tony clarified. "Back to how IS-cores are good solutions and mini arc-reactors are better solutions to the power problem. While the IS cores helps to store a great deal of energy like a battery, it doesn't come anywhere close to the total energy a miniature arc-reactor can generate. For the Mark I, II, and III the only technological breakthrough was the arc-reactor (AN: quoted from a deleted scene from Robert Downey Jr.'s audition for the role of Tony Stark). Everything else about those suits was already technologically feasible and could be recreated into shoddy knock-offs, but they'd be impractical without a mini arc-reactor because of energy requirements."

"Let me tell you about the EOS to give you an idea," inputted Neil. "The EOS is the 'Extended Operation Seeker' developed by the United Nations, and I helped test its practicality. The next gen Portable Plasma Battery on its back weighs 30 kilograms alone and it can only power the heavy thing for an operational cycle of 10 minutes. Meanwhile the mini-arc reactor powers Iron Man exoskeletons with far heavier and structurally sturdier power armor, makes it capable of flight, and its operation cycle is measured in hours or even days depending on level of activity."

"Bottom line miniature arc-reactors are a vastly superior power supply," Tony summed up. "Back to the original analogy though. Like a helicopter, the IS suits are capable of performing maneuvers that aren't physically impossible for the armor I designed because it can utilize different laws of physics. While the power armor systems I've designed basically have longer operation times and ranges due to having significant larger power reserves.

"Hmm." Ichika hummed as he looked up in thought. "Huh?" Only to snap out of it as he noticed a clock on the wall displaying the time. "I need to get going. If I'm late meeting up with Houki after I asked our meeting time moved to later she'll be really mad."

"Well you shouldn't keep a lady waiting, but still would she really be that upset?" Neil asked.

"Well it took a bit of effort to convince her to take the time to help tutor me about the IS outside of class to begin with."Ichika said as he gathered up his thing in his school bag. "Weirdly enough, she quickly agreed after an upperclassmen offered to spend her free time to privately tutor me." Ichika just shrugged them memory off, failing to notice the look Neil was giving him for how oblivious he was. He waved good bye and left the room.

"Should we tell him?" Neil asked out loud.

"About what?" Felt genuinely asked as she finally looked up from her Laptop. Neil sighed at his girlfriend's response.

"Feel free to tell him if you want," Tony voice once again came over the speaker. "Given my own dating history Chifuyu made me promise not to give him dating advice. Can't really fault her too much on her feeling that way. Her mother did play me for a sucker more than once after all."

* * *

'IS Academy's Kendo Club room really has a nice traditional feel to it.' Ichika noted as looked around while gasping for breath. After he had met up with Houki she had quickly dragged him here, change into the proper equipment, and had him spar in a match with her. A match where Houki proved she had earned her victory at that international kendo competition. Hence, why Ichika was sitting on the floor gasping for breath, and taking the time to take in the room before his next round with Houki. His eyes drifted over the traditional sliding wooden door where he noticed the three banners above it. From Left to right were "Rivalry", "Mighty Mind & Body", and "Unyieldingness" written in Kanji.

"Okay, what in the hell is going on here?" Houki's voice interrupted Ichika's wondering thoughts.

"I-I don't know what you mean." Ichika stated confused.

"How did you allow yourself to become so weak?" Houki asked irritably as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What clubs were you in in middle school?"

"The go-home club."Ichika responded sheepishly. "Three years of perfect attendance."

"Then you'll retrain. This problem comes before the IS. Effective immediately you will be in training with me for 3 hours every day after school."

"Hang on! I wanted you to teach me about the IS."

"And I said this problem comes before the IS!" Houki fired back

"Man, Orimura is kind of weak." Ichika overheard behind him. He notice a few girls off a little ways watching on. "Do you think he can really control an IS?

"Grr" Ichika growled out before standing back up and looking Houki straight in the eye. "I asked you to specifically teach me about the IS. If you're not willing to do that, then I'll just find someone else to do it."

"Huh?" Houki asked a little shocked and annoyed at Ichika response. She opened her mouth to let out an angry retort.

"Oh sweet, she's about to blow it." "Hey, this could be our chance." "I'm currently free to tutor you!"

Houki's ire quickly turned to worry as she finally noticed the random spectators that would be eager to pounce at the chance to tutor him. She quickly coughed into her hand and tried to school her features in an effort to try and save face. "The best chance you'll have at winning your match witch Ms. Stuffy British Britches is to devote as much time as you can into practical training between now and then." Houki explained. "The training units aren't available to us first years right now and your IS isn't here yet. That means the best training you can get right now is combat practice. Given the background you have in Kendo, as well as the fact that Japanese IS machines tend to have some kind of sword as a melee weapon, this is the best combat training you can get right now."

"Really," Ichika said outload as he mulled over Houki's reasoning. "Ok then, but if that's the case I'll be fighting based on what rules I know about IS matches rather than restricting myself to the rules of kendo."

"Is that so," Houki replied as a prideful glint came into her eye. "You shouldn't underestimate kendo, don't cry to me if you get yourself hurt underestimating it."

Both Ichika and Houki got back into position, standing ready to start another round. "Begin" Houki cried out, both her and Ichika to surge forward. Her first strike clashed against Ichika's as she expected. As rusty as her childhood friend was, she wasn't expecting him to go down on the first blow. 'What is he doing?' Houki couldn't help but think when she saw Ichika take one hand off his wooden practice sword. Well it didn't matter to her. If Ichika didn't want to maintain a firm grip, she'd knocked his sword out of his hand and…

*Whirrr*

'What? Where'd he…?'

"MEN" Houki heard Ichika call out his strike from behind her as he tapped the side of her head with his his wooden sword.

"What the?" Houki cried out as she turned around. "What the heck was that!?"

"My attempt at using a 'Kusagari' technique." Ichika stated as he let his shinai drop to hang at his side. "It's a rather obscure style that originated from the Kusagari clan that was born when the swordsman of the east came together with the gun slingers of America's wild west. I found out about them thanks to my sisters international travles. They were masters of the blade, and the side arms they kept at their side. It was common for many of them were to be agile and mobile enough to slip past many of their opponents guard and strike them from the flank our rear." He raised his hand up to reveal the repulsar he had equipped after the round had started. "Though they probably never had a device to assist them get a boost in mobility."

"So you didn't give up the sword sword entirely." Houki state sounding happy which surprised Ichika. "The reason you went home every day was too practice a sword style that the kendo club at school would likely condemn. A whole new sword style that I haven't faced before!"

'She said that last part rather eagerly.' Ichika thought as a wave of unease swept over his body. "Well it's not like I practiced as regularly as I would have if I was at a kendo club." Ichika raised his sword up just in time to block an overhead strike from Houki. He felt a heavy pressure both on his arms from the strain of holding Houki's strike back, and from the aura that seemed to be leaking out of Houki.

"Don't worry, we have plenty of time to practice right now." Houki had somewhat of a scary smirk on her face, and a predator like glean in her eyes.

A shiver ran down Ichika's spine before he activated the repulsar to get behind her and strike again. "Blocked!?" Ichika cried out in surprise upon seeing that Houki had already raised her practice sword over her shoulder to guard from the attack. 'After only seeing the move once, you anticipated and successfully blocked it Houki?'

"I've already seen that trick, and I for one can't wait to see what other techniques you got up your sleeves." Houki confidently declared, worrying Ichika even further.

As Ichika began to franticly reengage Houki, neither of the two noticed or remembered the onlookers that were quietly leaving as quickly as they could. "To think Shinonono was such kendo battle nut." "At first I thought it was unfair that Orimura used that device on his hand. After seeing Shinonono like that I can't blame him." "I'm just glad we left before there was a chance we could somehow get swept up in the middle of all that."

* * *

"I get that the academy wants to look high end, but why make the locker rooms look this opulent?" Houki couldn't help but think out loud as she changed out of her kendo gear. She spotted three large potted plants just when she had entered the through the doors of locker room, and that was speaking nothing of the vivid golden paint on the walls, counters, and lockers.

"I wonder if I got too over eager and was a bit too rough on him." Houki said softly as she pulled a strap of her clothing over her shoulder. She then scoffed. "No way! He had it coming. I might not have heard of the style he was using, but his grip didn't seem firm enough, unsure. Like him and his body were second guessing if he was doing it properly. It was obvious he hadn't practiced enough with that sword style for at least the past year. Otherwise, he wouldn't have ever lost to me so easily. At least he was proficient enough to capitalize on the surprise factor and win that one round." She was kind of upset that Ichika hadn't revealed any noteworthy techniques after that. If Ichika had any more little tricks up his sleeve, he had decided to save them for later after seeing they would only work on her once. "While it wasn't flashy, he did have the good sense to at least work on reinforcing the basics of his style."

She gained a forlorn look on his face. "He's changed. In the past 6 years when I didn't see him, Ichika's really changed so much." Houki said as she closed her eyes. Vivid imagery came to mind. Like watching an old nostalgic home video, she could vividly remember her and Ichika practicing side by side in the kendo dojo her family ran.

Houki open her eyes, revealing a determined stare. "So this means his intensive training will begin tomorrow. That means I'll get to be alone with Ichika after school..." She paused as light rosy pink colored her cheeks. "No! I'm not thinking about things like that at all!" Houki adamantly denied to herself as she furiously shook her head back and forth. "It's just that I'm genuinely concerned about helping my childhood friend's combat skills. Right, that's why it's okay." She declared as she rose her right hand up into the air then made a fist in determination.

* * *

[Two weeks later in the IS Arena hanger]

"Ah, Houki."

"What now?"

"Well," Ichika began, "the thing is, you promised me that you were going to teach me about the IS." He was somewhat shocked when Houki had the audacity to turn and stare at the wall away. "Hey!" Ichika called out while putting his hands on hips. "Don't turn away from me. Thanks to you, the only thing I've done this week is practice my Kusagari fighting style. Look me in the eyes and answer me!"

"Well, it's not like there was much else we could do. Your IS still hasn't been delivered yet." Houki said while continuing to look away for whatever reason. Ichika hoped it was guilt.

"Even without one, you could still at least teach me stuff about the basics." Houki respond by shifting to look so far away she had practically turned around. "And I said don't turn away from me!"

Suddenly a live feed came up on the wall Houki was looking at to avoid Ichika's gaze. It showed that Cecilia had already taken the field in a blue IS. "Whoa." Ichika said as he forgot his frustration. "So that's her personal IS." The blue color scheme alone set it apart from the mass production models he had seen. He had heard a few rumors that Cecilia's personal IS was one of the new third generation IS. Given the high tech look it had Ichika was willing to believe those rumors were true.

 **"** Orimura! Orimura! Orimura!" Ms. Yamada's voice came over the intercom. "It's here. Your personal IS has just arrived."

"Orimura, you need to get ready at once." Ichika heard his older sister say with her usual no nonsense professional teaching voice. "The amount of time we can use the arena is limited. You'll have to learn how to make this IS yours during the match itself."

Ichika and Houki's attention was drawn to a heavy mechanical doors as it slowly opened to reveal a gray IS unit with blue accents.

"This is Orimura's personal IS, The Byakushiki!"" Ms. Yamada announced.

"Hurry up and get suited." Chifuyu ordered. "Unfortunately for you time is limited. You'll have to do the formatting and fitting while the match is in progress."

"Understood" Ichika replied. He placed his hand on the IS, as he did he recalled when he first laid his hand on an IS and it activated. "It feels different, and yet there's something familiar about it. I think I can understand it. What it is, and its purpose."

"Show you entrust your life to it. Let it take control." Chifuyu explained as Ichika got into the machine. "The system will optimize the rest." The various parts of the endoskeleton attaching themselves onto his Ichika's body.

"Access. System start." A robotic voice sounded out. A series of holographic displays came up in front of Ichika's eyes showing him various stats.

"Byakushiki... This is Byakushiki." Ichika said outload as he tried to familiarize himself with the machine. 'Can't help but feel a bit exposed without a helmet.'

"Cecilia Alcott's machine is called "Blue Tears." Ms Yamada explained as image of IS in question came up along with a list of stats. "It's a long-range model IS."

"Blue Tears, got it."

"In every IS unit, there's a feature referred to as "absolute defense." Ms. Yamada reminded her student. "Its main function is to always protect the pilot's life during any attack. However, that deployment would cause your shield energy to be badly depleted. Loose too much and you'll lose the match, understand?"

The various parts of the endoskeleton finished attaching themselves onto Ichika's body.

"So Orimura, are you feeling up to this?" Chifuyu asked her brother while remaining professional.

"Yeah, piece of cake." Ichika respond confidently

Chifuyu smiled at her younger brother's enthusiasm. "We'll see."

"Hey, Houki." Ichika called out to his childhood friend.

"Huh?"

"Here we go."

"Oh, okay. Win this."

Ichika gave a small nod. He then took a step and leaned forward. "I'm off!" He said before flying out of the hangar.

'Okay let's get this over with.' Ichika thought to himself

* * *

'I can't believe this isn't over yet' Ichika thought to himself.

"Remind me again how we got here again." Neil drawled as he and Felt where doing one last check to see that Ichika and his IM suit were all set. They were standing in the same area were Ichika got into his personal IS earlier today.

"I had an IS match with Cecilia over who would be the class rep, but my IS finally arrived right before the match started." Ichika let out a tired sigh. "So I fought most of my match trying to dodge gunfire and attack drones while my IS was in its default state. Cecilia was rather surprised to see when it finally went through its first shift. But not as surprised as everyone was when I went to use Byakushiki weapon, Yukihira, and it drained enough of my own shield energy for the match to automatically be called, declaring Cecilia the winner."

"And would that normally lead to such a quick rematch?" Neil asked somewhat sarcastically.

"No, that's because Cecilia demand this rematch. Apparently she thinks it was unfair I wasn't able to fight with the Byakushiki at full strength for the most of the fight. It seems fighting against an opponent that she sees as handicapped goes against her pride. Truth be told I'm still surprised sis actually arranged this."

"No one is expecting another match so soon, you were fortunate enough there was another time slot later in the day for Ms. Orimura to secure." Felt explained as she finished her inspection. "The arena is on lockdown, and the only people here who didn't know about the IS before are Ms. Alcott and Ms. Shinonono. As Britain's representative candidate, Ms. Alcott already has a security clearance in a nation that contributes to SHIELDS international efforts, so we can trust her to keep things confidential. Your childhood friend was designated a person of interest six years ago after her older sister created the first IS, and is familiar with keeping quiet about clandestine information. From there your sister was able to use her authority, power and contacts both in this school and with SHIELD to permit them learning about IM units as well as to swear them to secrecy about what they'll see here after the match is over.

"In other words I already have everything covered Orimura." Chifuyu's voice sounded out over the intercom. "Now go out there and demonstrate what you can do with power armor that you've actually been trained to use."

"Yes mam." Ichika responded before he once again flew out into the stadium. This time his flying was a lot more controlled. He also took it slower than when he flew out with his IS earlier. 'With any luck she'll underestimate this suits speed.'

"You ready for our little rematch." Ichika called out as he took to hovering midair in the same position across from Cecilia as he did for their previous match.

"What are you piloting?" Cecilia asked in surprise.

"This is powered exoskeleton, specifically modelled after the Iron Man mark II model.

"You'd also do well not to underestimate him in that thing." Chifuyu's voice called out through both Ichika's and Cecilia's secure coms. "For the most part this match will have the same rulers as before. The only difference is that Ichika will lose when his unit takes either significant enough structural damage, or his unit's power runs low enough it reaches the same percentage the we call a match for IS shield energy. Now begin the match!"

"Honestly," Cecillia huffed as she crossed arms, far too relaxed about the situation. "First a model that was still in the default setting, now this inferior, low tech, alternative piece of hardware." She took her eyes of Ichika to stare at the location of the monitor room, where Ms. Yamada and Chifuyu were likely overseeing the match. "How do you expect for us to have a fair fight, let alone for him to have a chance of winning if you keep giving him suits that don't stand a chance of ACK!" she was cut off as Ichika slammed into her, accelerating far faster that what she though his suit would be capable of.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off your opponent." Ichika said before their flight end with Ichika slamming Cecilia's machine several feet off the ground into the top section of a wall that separated the battlefield from the surrounding audience seats.

"Augh" Cecilia shouted out. "How were you fast enough to, OOMPH" She cried out as Ichika need her in the stomach, pushing her IS far enough into the wall for is to be noticeably stuck when she tried to move it to get back up.

"Sorry about this," Ichika said with some trepidation, before he started raining down his armored fist, blow upon blow, on Cecilia's IS unit. Ichika aimed for the more armored areas where he hoped it would hurt Cecilia less and deplete more of here shield energy.

Unfortunately for Cecilia, most armor plating on IS units were designed to disperse under significant impact as a means to reduce the toll on an IS units shield energy. It was a design feature that was key to helping pilots win IS matches where the loser was whoever ran out of shield energy first. It was also one of the primary reasons IS pilots could still experience pain in their matches despite the so called "Absolute-defense system."

Cecilia gritted her teeth, "Grr, I'm not just going to lie here and take this you brute."

"Incoming" the suit's Ai EDI warned, red dot's appeared on Ichika's heads up display, letting him know that Cecilia's flying remote optical drone units were lining up to attack him from behind. He grabbed Cecilia by the shoulders. "Where do you think your touching!?" Cecilia shouted out indignantly, blushing while she sent the command to her drones to launch the missiles they had tucked away for an ace in the whole. Her embarrassment turn to shock as Ichika ripped her out of the wall and through her at the incoming attack behind him.

"GAH" Cecilia shouted and closed her eyes as she was hit full force by her own missiles. She heard Ichika be declared the winner as her IS used up its shield energy. She felt herself falling only to come to a gentle stop as she felt someone pick her up midflight.

"Gotch ya." Cecilia opened her eyes as her IS unit transformed into standby mode, only to become embarrassed when she realized her opponent was now carrying her bridal style. "You Okay?"

"I'm fine," Cecilia said, while being genuinely surprised by Ichika's concern. "My IS unit would have manage to hold together until after I hit the ground you know."

"Yeah well," The IM suit's helmet lifted up to reveal Ichika giving a kind warm smile the Cecilia found rather charming. "With how little I know about the IS, I didn't want to take a chance with your safety milady." Ichika added on the last part as a joke at how Cecilia tended to carry herself like a prideful noble. Rather than eliciting a laugh, a blush came over Cecilia's face. "Hmm? Now that I take a closer look at you your face is all red, you sure you're OK?"

"Like I said earlier, I'm fine." Cecilia crossed her arms arrogantly. "Hmph, I'll have you know that even if I lost, it takes far more than that to truly harm the great Cecilia Alcott!"

"Glad to hear it." Ichika's smile was now easy going with a hint of mirth. "Never the less, sorry if I ended up being a little too rough. I felt that it would have hurt your pride even more if I held back on you."

Cecilia gave Ichika a warm smile. "Well aren't you a considerate gentleman when you want to be?"

"Just how long are you two going to waste time floating there like that!?" Cecilia and Ichika turned their heads to see a very annoyed Houki and her mad face in the stands. "If you're worried about her, quit stalling and set her down already so she can leave to go to the infirmary to get checked out!"

Cecilia frowned, "I suppose she's right." Cecilia then adopted a sly grin. "So could you continue to be a gentleman and kindly escort me?" She asked as she put her arms around his neck.

"Um, what are you doing?" Ichika asked slightly confused.

'It's only fitting that a lady of my status acts the part when she finds herself in a princess carry.' Cecilia thought to herself. "Just taking a precaution to make sure I don't fall. You wouldn't want me to take the chance of getting hurt would you?" Cecilia asked coyly with her face very close to Ichika's.

"Ah, no, of course not." Responded a flustered Ichika. He was so flustered he didn't notice the triumphant smirk Cecilia shot at a seething Houki as they flew down.

* * *

 **AN: So first chapter was completely original content, second followed close to the script, and now this one follows canon story outline while trying to avoid as much unoriginal content as possible. In case it wasn't obvious by now, I'm actively trying to experiment and see what's the best way for me to write a story.**

 **If you have an opinion on these three different chapter, feel free to let me know what you though I did good, and what sucked. Because until people let me know what they thought, all I know is how much I like these chapter. I will say I enjoyed the way I wrote the first, and third chapters better than the second.**


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